Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - A scarcity of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life in the older Churches is compensated by a flourishing of the former in the young Churches in mission territories. Hundreds and hundreds of young people every year ask to enter the seminary or be accepted by a religious congregation or institute. In view of this European and American congregations have invested the best of their personnel in the work of vocation discernment and formation in mission territories.
We are not speaking of minor seminaries, which in certain countries and at certain periods are not difficult to fill. These minor seminaries can become and very often are in actual fact, Catholic schools which offer a Christian education. I am referring to major seminaries which are unable to accommodate the great number of young men asking to study for the priesthood. Myanmar, where Catholics number 600,000, has 270 major seminarians which local formation centres are unable to accept and the bishops have to send their seminarians to study in the Philippines, Italy and the United States of America.
The lack of structures is a problem which can be resolved with an equal distribution of economic resources in a context of communion among the Churches. More sensitive and dramatic is the scarcity of formation staff, without whom it is impossible to guarantee the Christian community shepherds after the Heart of God, model disciples of Christ, rich in humanity, ready to give their lives for the flock and to be prophetic signs of God's tender love.
Formation staff, as the Church desires them, are not technicians who prepare their disciples to exercise a profession. No, they are pedagogues, whose task is to help seminarians form a sound human personality, to understand and assimilate the mystery of Christ whose mission we wish to continue. They are formators to the extent that they are authentic and credible witnesses, who listen continually to the Word of God and desire to be illuminated and guided by the Spirit.
Certainly the vitality of a Christian community and a local Church depends to a large extent on those in charge of forming the future priests.
However in these times of cultural change, formation to the priesthood and the consecrated life has become problematic and therefore more complex. Its goal must be to prepare the priest and the religious for the men and women of today, putting aside, should it be the case, certain cliché valid in the past. It must be formation which is incarnated, inculturated.
Our young Churches in missionary territories have the vocations, but precisely due to their recent foundation, they still lack sufficient personnel to attend to this important sector of their community life. Aware that the formation of priests and religious is a priority, they do their utmost to ensure future formators are professionally prepared. In the meantime they ask their Sister Churches, missionary institutes and religious congregations to give them a hand, sending qualified personnel such as rectors, spiritual directors, docents in theology.
It is true that the whole Church is ministerial, a people of priests, kings and prophets. However she is not an undifferentiated body, she is composed of various parts and each is called to a specific ministry according to the gifts conferred by the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the priest and the ministry of the bishop, are indispensable and without them the Christian community would lose its life and its vitality.
This is why it is our duty to support seminaries, which are like the heart of the local Church. And we must pray continually to the Holy Spirit, that with His light he may enlighten formators, clothe them with holiness, that they may be living examples, living moulds for those whom they are called to mould. (Fr. Vito Del Prete, PIME) (Agenzia Fides 2/5/2007, righe 45, parole 608)
